


You dream about going up there (But that is a big mistake)

by twoohugs



Series: Fairytale AUs [1]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Deadpool - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, I just can't make myself write him as loving as Triton, Little Mermaid AU, M/M, POV Multiple, Shapeshifting, Tony is not as smart as he should be sorry that's how the story goes, the romance in team red is quite lowkey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-25 22:02:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19754647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twoohugs/pseuds/twoohugs
Summary: Team Red The Little Mermaid AU, in the POV of Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle!Featuring: Matt as Sebastian, Peter as Flounder, Wade as Scuttle, Tony as Ariel, and Steve as Eric.Disclaimer: Contains lines from Disney’s 1989 Little Mermaid film. All rights to owners!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first Marvel fic!!! I had fun writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it too:) Please leave a comment or kudo behind if you do!
> 
> A bit of clarification about shapeshifting in this story: All merpeople are born with the ability to shift to one kind of marine-related animal. They can still talk in animal form. Matt is blind, but can see when he’s in crab form.

“And last but not least, the highlight of the day, Prince Anthony!”

With a drumroll, the last shell slowly opens, revealing...nothing. The cheering audience quiets down.

Matt sucks in a breath. He sneaks a peak upwards at King Howard next to him, whose proud posture has completely stiffened up. This is bad.

At least the audience don’t even look surprised, only perhaps a little bit disappointed. Everyone is used to Prince Tony’s antics at this point. 

Matt sighs inwardly. This is not going to end well. He just hopes Peter is not going to get in trouble along with Tony this time.

* * *

“Toooony…” Peter whines futilely as Tony speeds towards the ship wreckage ahead, his eyes shining with the almost manic gleam he always gets whenever human artifacts are involved.

“Peter, hurry up!”

“Tony, wait for me! You know I can’t swim that fast!”

Ignoring his best friend, Tony peers into a porthole and gasps. “Look at that. It’s fantastic!”

Peter takes a peek inside dubiously. The insides of the shipwreck looks like...well, a wreck. Only a small portion of the natural light from outside shines through, and the wooden structure of the ship casts long, ominous shadows on the floorboards. He grimaces and drifts back. “Sure… Now let’s get out of here.”

“You’re not getting cold fins now, are you?”

“Who, me? No-no way. It’s just, uh, looks damp in there. Yeah. And I think I think I may be coming down with something.” _cough_ “Yeah, I got this cough.”

Tony simply raises an amused eyebrow. “Sure. I’m going inside. You can just stay here and watch for sharks.” He gestures towards the porthole with a tilt of his head, then swiftly swims into the shipwreck.

“Okay. Yeah, you go. I stay and--” Peter breathes out a sigh of relief, only to suck it back in when he actually processes Tony’s words. “SHARKS? Tony! I can’t- I mean- help!” He darts forward to follow Tony into the ship wreckage.

Snickering, Tony reaches out to steady a panicking Peter. “Peter, there won’t actually be sharks around here. Don’t worry! Now let’s go look around.” Letting go of Peter, he tours around the wreckage excitedly, marvelling at everything he sees, while Peter keeps glancing around anxiously, mumbling “I don’t like this, I don’t like this…” under his breath. With a sudden movement, Tony surges forward to the middle of the room, picking up a shiny object that somehow resembles a trident.

“Oh, look at you.” Tony practically swoons, turning around to show it to Peter. “Have you ever seen anything so wonderful in your entire life?” 

“Wow! Cool!” Coming closer to look at the object more closely, Peter has to admit that the shiny thingy is quite exquisite. It is totally smooth, well-polished like the highest quality jewels. “But what is it?”

Tony shrugs, tugging the object into his satchel. “I don’t know, but I bet Wade would.”

Just then, Peter picks up a small creaking noise. “Tony? Tony.” He tugs on Tony’s elbow. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what? No. Peter, relax.” Tony says distractedly, and doesn't look up from where he is carefully tying up his satchel’s strings.

The noise is getting louder, and Peter can see from the floorboards that a large shadow is looming behind them. Peter squeezes his eyes shut in fear. _It’s nothing, it’s not a shark, we’ll be fine, we’ll be fine…_ He takes a deep breath and slowly turns around.

It’s not fine. It’s a shark, and it is so close he can see the rows of long, sharp teeth in its enormous mouth.

“Aaaaaaaaargh!” Screaming, Peter grabs Tony by the arm and pulls him away, pushing his tail to swim as fast as possible. “Shark! Shark! We’re gonna die!” He babbles in panic. The shark is huge, and it is so much faster than the two of them. Even as Tony recovers from his shock and joins in the mad dash with his more powerful tail, Peter can still feel the shark getting closer and closer. They rush out through a random porthole, the shark’s sharp teeth almost reaching Tony’s tail-

And the bulkiest part of the shark’s body gets stuck on the porthole with a large _bonk_ , its mouth snapping threateningly but unable to further endanger the two mermen.

“I am-- never-- doing this again.” Peter gasps, still not releasing his death grip on Tony’s arm. Tony looks dazed, his chest moving rapidly as he pants in exertion. “Yeah...yeah.” He nods weakly. The two swim up towards the surface in silence, still catching their breath.

* * *

Wade lounges around casually on top of a large rock in the middle of the sea. He is a reasonable distance away from land, although he is in no danger from humans in his current seagull form. He enjoys the hustle of the human town, but the love for the peaceful sea breeze is ingrained in his blood.

A slight ripple on the water surface warns him of his new company.

“Wade!” Wade barely makes out the form of Peter and Tony when Peter all but throws himself towards Wade, hugging the bird close to his chest. Almost completely enclosed by Peter’s arms, Wade can feel him trembling all around his now-smaller body.

Wade dips his head down, careful not to cut Peter with his beak. “What is it, baby boy?” He mumbles despite the limited range of motion.

Peter simple shakes his head, pressing his face to Wade’s head. Wade knows that something must have happened, but there would be no way to coax him to tell like this. Instead of pressing the matter, Wade stays still and lets Peter find comfort in stroking his damp feathers.

When Peter finally lets go, all three men decidedly pretend nothing has happened, and they move on with the conversation.

“So, Wade,” Tony says in exaggerated casualness, showing him a shiny trident-like object with a flourish, “do you know what this is?”

Wade does not know what that is.

“Human stuff, huh?” He says, plucking the object out of Tony’s hands, wrecking his brain to come up with an explanation that makes some sense. “This is something special. Very, very unusual, Tony.”

“What? What is it?” Tony is practically vibrating in excitement.

“It’s...a dinglehopper! Humans use these little babies to straighten their hair out.”

Tony looks doubtful, but since Wade, with his unique alternate form, is the only one with intel on humans, he is given the element of doubt.

Wade is rather proud of his improvisation. He would feel guilty about lying, but Tony would be happy with the satisfaction of having literally ANY insight on humans, and Peter has probably already seen through his bullshit anyway. Or, judging by his vacant stare at the horizon, Peter has not yet recovered enough to hear him at all.

“Though I am quite surprised you are here now, Tony.” Wade says after watching Tony try to comb his hair with the 'dinglehopper' for a while, “I thought the demonstration starts at mid-day today?”

Tony freezes.

“The demonstration! Shit, my father is going to kill me!”

Peter’s eyes widen in horror. “The demonstration was today?”

For a second there, the three just pause and look at each other. Wade is the first to snap back into action. 

“You’ve gotta go, Tony. NOW.”

Tony springs back into motion. “Yes. Peter, come on. Thank you, Wade!”

“Yeah, thanks Wade! See you later!”

Wade waves his wing at the retreating figures of his friends.

“Anytime, sweetheart. Anytime.”

* * *

Matt stands on a raised platform next to King Howard as the sea king stares his son down. He can’t help being angsty--King Howard’s barely suppressed anger is obvious, and while Matt has to stay in his crab form to maintain his vision, he definitely does not fancy facing the king’s wrath in this tiny, weak body. Peter, half-hiding behind Tony, glances sheepishly at him.

“I just don’t know what we’re going to do with you.” King Howard finally says.

“I am sorry, father, I just-”

“Your careless, reckless behavior ruined the entire celebration!” King Howard explodes, thrashing out his arm, barely missing Matt and swiping down the vase next to him. The loud _crash_ seems to sober him up, and he gulps in a few large mouthfuls of air to calm himself down. Matt subtly tries to position himself as far away from the king as possible without falling off the platform.

“Your majesty, if I may, it wasn’t entirely his fault--erm, the- the shark chased us, and- and we…” Peter starts timidly.

_c’mon, Peter,_ Matt thinks, desperately.

“And this- erm, this seagull came, and-”

“A seagull?”

_Oh no._

“You went up to the surface again, didn’t you?” The king turns to Tony and demands.

“But father, nothing happened-”

“How many times must we go through this, Anthony? You could’ve been seen by one of those barbarians, by- by one of those _humans_ -”

“Father, they are not dangerous!”

“They are dangerous! Do you think I want to see my youngest son snared by some fish-eater’s hook?”

“I’m not a child!”

“Don’t you take that tone of voice with me, young man!”

Matt and Peter look between the two royals like they are watching a ping-pong match. Matt can see that Peter wants to interject, but thinks better of it. _He probably feels guilty for escalating the argument by mentioning Wade, poor innocent boy._

“As long as you live under my ocean, you will obey my rules!”

Matt does not like where this is going. 

“But if you would just listen-”

“Not another word!” The king bellows, and everyone else quiet down. “You are never, ever going to the surface again! Is that clear?”

Tony’s mouth opens and closes, but makes no noise. Then, his face steels, and he swims away without a word. Peter gives a quick, awkward curtsey and follows Tony out.

“Anthony needs constant supervision.” King Howard says after a moment. “Someone to watch after him and keep him out of trouble. And you are just the merman, or crab, to do it.” 

Matt swallows. “Yes, your majesty.” He croaks.

_How do I get myself into these situations?_

* * *

Peter follows Tony all the way back to his grotto. It is a secluded cave hidden behind Tony's workshop, where he analyses the human artifacts he finds to figure out their structures and usage. The king only knows about his more politically-correct inventions out in the workshop, but has no idea this is where Tony actually dedicates his time to. 

The moment Tony sits down on the floor of the cave, surrounded by his collection of human treasures, he hides his face in his arm and breaks down into sobs. Peter can only brush his friend’s hair gently and wait for him to recover. This is far from the first time the prince argues with the king on this particular topic, but both men are becoming more stubborn and headstrong. Peter sighs quietly. _There doesn't seem to he a good resolution to the problem, is there? This is not going to end well._

Out of the corner of his eye, Peter sees Matt crawl into the grotto quietly, looking around in awe. Peter can’t help but tenses--Matt’s job as the King’s advisor puts him in an awkward position, and they agreed long ago that it is best for Matt to just not know anything about Tony’s interest of humans, lest he gets interrogated by the King, so he was never told about this collection. That means he must have followed them here.

Feeling Peter tense, Tony raises his head and follows Peter’s gaze to see Matt the crab. He tenses as well.

Matt waves a claw with a weak smile. “Hi?”

“Matt? Why are you here?” Tony frowns.

“Tony,” instead of answering, Matt gestures towards the entirety of the cave, “what is all this?”

“It’s, uh- it’s my collection.”

“Tony, if your father knows about this place-”

“You’re not going to tell him, are you?”

Matt looks conflicted.

“Please, Matt. He would never understand.” Peter pleads.

Matt sighs. “I won’t tell him, Tony. But if he asks I will have to answer truthfully, you know that.”

“I understand your dilemma, Matt. Thank you. That is all I can ask for.” Tony smiles weakly.

Peter puts an arm around Tony’s shoulder. “Come on, Tony, you’ve been through a lot today. Let’s get you home, hmm?”

Just then, a large shadow flows over the opening of the cave. Peter gasps and is about to grab the two older mermen and flee when Tony shrugs off Peter's arm and swims towards the opening instead.

“Tony!” Peter shouts.

“No, look.” Matt says gently, pointing his claw towards to shadow. Now that Peter has a second look, he realises that it is not in the shape of a shark.

“A human ship?” He asks. Ships are human objects they are all familiar with--large crowds of human travel onto the sea on these large water chariots, sometimes dropping baits and webs that take away large number of water creatures, who never return.

“A human ship.” Matt sighs, standing up. “Now let’s go get Tony before he goes to the surface and climb up that thing.”

* * *

Wade glides over the cool sea breeze, towards the sparkling stars spewing up from a human ship. He loves these things. Fire is something they don’t have under the sea, and this particular type of colorful flying fire is especially alluring. _Fireworks,_ his brain helpfully supplies the word he heard from the humans.

Spotting a familiar flash of red on the side of the boat, he folds his wings and dives down.

“Hey there, prince-guy!” He says as he lands near Tony. Peering into the ship where Tony’s looking, he sees a bunch of human dancing and singing. “Quite a show, huh?”

Tony looks up at Wade and raises a finger to his lips. “Be quiet, Wade. They’ll hear you.”

“Oooooh I got it. We’re being in-tre-pi-da-cious. We’re out to discover!” He spreads his wings dramatically, only to lose his balance and fall over, barely catching himself before he hits the water surface.

“I’ve never seen a human this close before.” Tony is saying dreamily when he comes back. He probably didn’t even notice Wade falling off. “He’s very handsome, isn’t he?”

Wade follows Tony’s gaze to see a tall, muscular man with swept back blonde hair. Merpeople can never manage a hairstyle like that underwater. And look at those legs! Wade often mocks the human’s thin, shrimp-like limbs, but this human’s leg as muscular and thick and shouts POWER. Just like his equally muscular arms.

“He looks delicious.” Wade sighs. Tony swats him on the head. “Pick your own human,” he grumbles without taking his eyes off the human, “I called dips on this one.”

“Hey! Not fair!” Wade swats back feebly. “I already have two mer-boyfriends, though.”

“Quiet, Quiet!” An older, balding human says. Tony and Wade stop their banter to listen. “It is now my honor and privilege to present our esteemed Prince Steven-” He gestures to Tony’s blonde human- (“My human is a prince!” Tony whispers excitedly. Wade hushes him.) “with a very special, very expensive, very large birthday present.” With a flourish, the human takes a large cloth off a bulky object, revealing...a statue of Prince Steven, in an awkward position that involves bending one of his legs and leaning backwards.

Wade sniggers. Tony blinks rapidly. Tony’s human, Prince Steven, clears his throat with an odd expression.

“Ah, gee, Phil- uh, it’s- it’s really something.” He says at last.

“Yes, I commissioned it myself.” Phil says proudly. Wade sniggers again. “Of course, I hoped it would have been a wedding present, but-”

“I know, Phil.” Prince Steven sighs. “I just want- I hope that when I marry, it would be someone I love, you know? They must be out there somewhere…”

“Wel, maybe you just haven’t been looking hard enough.” Phil suggests.

“Believe me, Phil, when I find them, I will know.” Prince Steven smiles. Wade feels Tony swooning besides him. “Without a doubt, it’ll just- bam- hit me like lightning.”

A bolt of lightning flashes right at that moment. Tony and Wade gasp as the ship sways suddenly, almost shaking them off the side.

“Hurricane a-comin!’” Someone on the ship shouts.

“Uh-uh, bad news.” Wade mutters. “C’mon, Tony, let’s go, this is gonna get nast- Arghhhhhhhh!” Not having a firm grip of the ship, Wade gets blown away by a strong gust of wind. Spinning rapidly in the wild wind, Wade can’t spread his wings or open his eyes, and he feels a sudden surge of fear as he is uncontrollably carried by the violent currents through the air.

_Don’t crash, don’t crash, don’t crash-_ He thinks desperately, squeezing his eyes tight.

With a sudden _poof_ , Wade falls into something soft, and feels the wind weaken around his cushion. Wade takes a while to calm himself and regain his bearings, then sits up gingerly. He is in a mountain of some kind of dried grass, in the middle of a wooden house where humans keep their animals- a- a shed. There is no door at the opening of the shed. The strong winds must have blown it away. The wind outside is still very strong, so there is no way he can fly out now. 

“Neigh! Neigh!” Wade whirls around to face the source of the sudden noise, then waddles towards the inside of the shed to investigate. A horse! Wade likes horses. They are like seahorses, but with legs, and are so much bigger! And they let him sit on their backs and relax in the warm sunlight.

“Hello!” Wade says aloud, “I am Wade! We are so going to become best friends.” He settles on the horse’s head, resting his chin on the warm fur between its ears, and babbles on while he waits for the wind outside to cease.

* * *

Matt and Peter did not manage to catch up to Tony in the end. Matt is a lot slower in his crab form, and just when the two almost caught up with Tony, a sudden, powerful wave pushed them back and under, followed by waves of large buckets and debris from the human ship.

Cursing, Matt switches back to his merman form, curling an arm tightly around Peter before they can be separated. With the addition of Matt’s larger, stronger body, they stop being so helplessly carried by the currents. Peter finds a large boulder and leads Matt towards it, hiding their bodies behind the rock, which buffers the strong waves and allow them to cling on.

“You alright?” Matt pets Peter down to check for injuries from the debris.

“I’m OK.” Peter runs his fingers through Matt’s hair comfortingly, although he still sounds scared.

“Shit, Tony.” Matt swears. It’s hasn’t even been 2 hours since King Howard asked him to keep an eye on Tony. He hasn’t just lost the prince, he lost the prince on the surface near land, at night, in a storm. Matt rubs a hand on his face tiredly. _The universe knows you shouldn’t ask a blind man to ‘keep an eye out’ for anything,_ he thinks sardonically. _At least I have Peter with me.”_ Together, they wait behind the boulder for the storm to pass.

Matt can feel the waves slowing down as the water above starts to turn warmer.

“The storm’s passed and the sun’s up.” Peter whispers.

Detangling himself from Peter and the rock, Matt decides the currents are gentle enough for him to switch.

“We should go find Tony.” Matt-the-crab says. Peter nods, scooping Matt up, and pushes both of them up to the surface.

The current has brought them much closer to land, Matt realises. Looking around, his spots a flash a red on a rock above water. “Hey,” He says, pulling Peter along. “There he is.”

When they get closer, Matt notices that Wade is there as well, but is just looking on with a subdued expression. Before he can ask, Wade makes eye contact with him and jerks his head towards the stretch of land not far away. On the sand, there is a… human man? Matt looks back at Tony, who is staring at the human with his hands under his chin.

“Oh dear,” Peter says under his breath.

“What is it?” Matt whispers back equally quietly.

“Tony’s in love. Look at him!”

_Oh no._ “Oh, no no no no no. He is in love with a human.” He groans.

Wade flies over to join them. “And not just any human. A prince. Prince Steven.” He adds helpfully. 

Matt groans louder. “A human prince. His father will love that.”

They wait by Tony’s side as he watches on the unconscious human, and is only willing to leave when another human comes to collect the Prince.

* * *

To say that Tony behaves oddly over the next few days would be an understatement. In his infatuation, he doesn’t even seem to remember the trauma of the storm.

“He’s lovesick,” Peter whines as he flops down onto the bed of sea anemone Wade is lying on. “I wonder if we could do something about it.”

“Well,” Wade says, settling down the seaweed he is weaving, “I was wandering around yesterday, and I came across something interesting. Would you like to see?”

“Does that something have anything to do with Tony’s predicament?” Peter asks, although he is already getting up. Wade doesn’t often take Peter on his adventures (“We can’t let you get hurt, baby boy!”), but whenever he does, they are always fun.

“You’ll have to come to find out!” Wade says, offering Peter his hand. Grinning, Peter takes his hand and allows himself to be led away.

The place they arrive at is a group of rocks at the bottom of the ocean in the middle of nowhere. Stuck between two large rocks, is a large statue of a human.

“Is that-” Peter gasps.

“Dear old Prince Steven.” Wade nods. “Must’ve fallen off during the storm.”

“Do you think we can bring it back for Tony?” Peter circles the statue, already vibrating in excitement.

In the end, Wade has to bribe two large turtles to help pull the heavy statue along, but they manage to drag it into Tony’s treasure cave in the end.

“Now go surprise your best friend, bubble cheeks.” Wade says, giving the statue one last tap.

“Thank you, Wade, it is gonna make Tony so happy.” Peter wraps an arm around Wade’s waist, give him a peck, and leaves to fetch Tony.

Peter finds Tony near a bed of sea flowers. He watches as Tony picks a large flower and plucks out its petals one-by-one, chanting “He loves me… He loves me not? He loves me!” with each petal he pulls out.

After Tony reaches a conclusion (“He loves me!” He squeals as he plucks the final petal from the flower, and promptly falls over), Peter announces his presence.

“Tony! Tony!” He bounces as Tony sits up disorientedly. “I have something to show you! Come on!” And he pulls him along before he could respond.

The closer they get to the cave, the more confused Tony looks. “Why are we here, Pete?”

“Just wait and see!” Peter jumps onto Tony back and covers his eyes. “Forward!”

Tony chuckles at Peter’s enthusiasm and obeys. Once they arrive at the cave, Peter does a quick check to make sure the statue is standing right opposite the entrance in all its glory, and counts down to three. “You can open your eyes now, Tony.” He moves to the side.

Tony’s face when he opens his eyes alone is worth all the work, Peter decides happily as Tony glides forward and touches the statue with a trembling hand. “Oh, Peter.” He breathes, “Peter, this means so much to me. You’re the best!” He tackles Peter in a hug, then goes back to studying the statue. “It looks just like him. It even has his eyes.”

Peter doubts that the human prince has such lifeless grey eyes, but decides not to comment, and sits down on the side to give Tony a little privacy.

A tiny movement at the corner of his eye catches his attention. He turns around and jumps when he sees a seething King Howard standing at the entrance to the cave.

“Your- your majesty!” He squeaks.

Tony whips around. “Father?”

The king’s jaw is set so hard Peter can almost hear his teeth clenching.

“I consider myself a reasonable man.” He bites out. “I set certain rules, and I expect those rules to be obeyed.”

“Father, I…”

“Is it true you rescued a human?”

_What? How does he know-_ Peter notices a cowering Matt behind King Howard. He grimaces and shakes his head at Peter apologetically, and Peter knows immediately, without a doubt, that Matt has tried his best to prevent this from happening. _Poor Matt, I wonder what King Howard put him through._

“Contact between the human world and the mer-world is strictly forbidden. You know that!”

“He would have died!”

“One less human to worry about!”

“You don’t even know him!”

“Know him? Then do _you_ know him? I don’t have to know him! Humans are all the same. Spineless, savage, harpooning fish-eaters incapable of any feeling-”

“I love him, okay?” Tony is breathing heavily.

King Howard reels back in horror. “No. Have you lost your senses completely?”

Tony looks horrified at his outburst and does not answer.

“So help me, Anthony, I am going to get through to you.” The king says warningly. Tony’s eyes widen. “And if this is the only way, so be it!”

Pointing his trident upward, he shoots sparks of beams that smashes through Tony’s racks of human artifacts.

“No, father, no!” Ignoring Tony’s pleas, King Howard simply waves his trident is a wide arc, destroying racks and racks of Tony’s treasure.

Around the commotion, Peter sees Matt retreating out the cave. Peter is torn between helping his best friend and following his boyfriend, and King Howard makes the choice for him as he shoves Peter out of the cave to reach the cupboard behind him.

Outside, Tony’s pleas are slightly muffled but no less heart-breaking. “Stop it! No!” Tony screams one last time, and everything falls silent, except for the gentle _clink_ s when pieces of broken artifacts fall to the floor of the cave. The king storms out the cave, not even looking back once.

Peter turns back to the cave. The destruction is thorough, he notices sadly. The rows of stone ledges once full of trinkets are empty, the floor is littered with broken bits and pieces, and--Peter’s heart breaks further upon the sight--an empty space where Prince Steven’s statue had been. The only evidence of its once-existence is a large burn mark on the wall behind, and a collapsed, sobbing Tony on the floor. 

“Tony…” Peter says softly, not having an idea how to comfort his heartbroken friend.

“No, Peter. Just… leave me alone for a while.” Tony croaks. Swallowing roughly, Peter retreats quietly.

He flattens himself against the wall of the cave, and only then does he notice Matt in his merman form, curled up near the floor.

“Matt.” Matt doesn’t answer, but Peter realizes just then that Matt’s hitching breaths and shoulders are signs of him crying. “Matt?”

“I’m sorry,” Matt whispers. _Oh, Matt._ “It’s my fault, I tried, I didn’t want to say, but he asked, and-” Peter hushes him gently, his own eyes filling at the ache of seeing two of his favourite people break down.

“It’s not your fault, Matt. You are forced to.”

Matt doesn’t answer, but just reaches up blindly to grab Peter’s hand, and hangs on tightly. Peter grips back tightly, wrapping his other arm around Matt in a hug.

* * *

It feels like it took forever for Matt to recover enough to uncurl himself.

“Gosh.” He tilts his head back and hears Peter do the same, gently resting against the wall. Peter’s hand twitches.

“Matt- oh! Tony!” He sounds strained. “Hey, Tony!” Peter starts pulling Matt up.

“Wha?” Matt switches back to a crab and glances up the direction Peter is leading them to see Tony swimming away, flanked by two sinister-looking eels. “Tony, where are you going?”

“I’m going to so Amora,” Tony says.

Matt breathes in sharply. “Amora? She is an evil enchantress!” He gasps, rushing forward to catch Tony’s tail fins. “Don’t go, Tony. Don’t listen to them!”

Tony snorts. “Why don’t you go tell my father?” He snaps. “You’re good at that.”

Stricken, Matt recoils like Tony has hit him. Tony simply huffs, snatches his tail back and follows the eels away. Peter reaches out cradle Matt gently, wiping a soothing thumb on his shell.

“You know he doesn’t mean it, he wouldn’t blame you,” he murmurs quietly. Matt appreciates the effort to comfort him, but feel like it would take some time for that blow to heal. Afterall, it is a fact that all of this happened because of him. He just shakes his head sadly at Peter, and lets himself be carried along.

They follow Tony and the eels all the way to an ominous-looking cave. They watch Tony go in, and stealthily follow.

“Oh my-” Peter gasps. The whole passage leading from the opening of the cave to its center is covered with polyps with faces. Matt reels back in horror, then steels himself. Tony is in danger. They have to help.

“We have to help Tony.” Peter says, as much to Matt as it is to himself. He takes a deep breath, then looks at Matt. “Ready?”

Matt is sure he looks very much NOT ready.

“Yeah.” He says. “Let’s go in.”

It is a bad idea. The polyps seem to be determined to not let them mess with whatever it is going in there, and keeps reaching out with their appendages to wrap around Matt and Peter and drag them back. Struggling to get out of their tentacles’ hold, Matt can barely hear what is going on in the cave, only Amora’s obnoxious laughter and Tony’s blabbering.

Next to him, Peter gives a final tug and frees himself from the polyps, then reaches down to pull Matt free as well.

“Thanks.” Matt pants as they swim towards the center of the cave, but before they reach it, there is a bright flash of light. Matt and Peter spare a quick glance at each other, then rush forward to the clearing. There, suspended midway in the water, is a human body. _Tony._ It is Tony, with human legs, floating helplessly in the water and-

“He can’t breathe!” Peter rushes to catch Tony as he sinks back down. Matt barely catches a glimpse of Amora’s smug smile before he follows Peter and Tony out towards the opening of the cave. Once they are safely far away from the polyps, Matt holds onto Peter’s elbow and switches back, using his stronger tail to take them up to the water surface more quickly.

Tony gasps loudly when they broke the surface, and limply lets Peter and Matt drag him to land. Once he is safely in an area with shallow water, however, he seems to lose his fear and instead begins to stare in amazement at his newfound human legs.

“Tony, what have you done?” Matt whispers once he switches back to look around. Tony opens his mouth to answer, but no noise comes out. He closes his mouth with a pout.

“She took your voice?” Peter’s almost screams. Tony raises three fingers. “Three? Three what?” He points at the sky. “Three days? You get to be a human for three days in exchange for your voice?” He shakes his head, then makes a complex series of motions: Three fingers, a kissing motion, a thumbs up, points at his legs, points at his throat, jazz hands. Then three fingers, an X with his arms, kissing motion, thumbs down, points at Peter’s tail, points at his throat while shaking his head.

“If you kiss in three days, you’ll become human and get your voice back. If you don’t kiss in three days, you’ll turn back to a merman and lose your voice forever.” Matt guesses. Tony nods grimly.

“So we can let you wander around for three days, then give you a smooch and you’ll come back?” Peter asks hopefully.

Tony shakes his head, turns around, and points at the castle, barely visible in their position. Matt feels his stomach drop in dread. “You have to kiss the prince,” he says, not as a question but as a statement. Tony nods to confirm. Not even knowing what to say, Matt and Peter sit back wordlessly.

“Whoooooooo!” A loud whoop shatters the silence after a while. He looks up, and sees a familiar seagull flying towards them. “My favourite mermen! What’s happenin’, lovelies?”

“Wade.” Matt sighs.

“What is it? Is this our new hiding place?”

“Wade…”

“I dunno, this looks isolated enough, but there’s no one here for you to human-watch!”

“Wade.”

“I am thinking, what about somewhere with a nicer view? A better vantage poin-”

“Wade!” Matt says sharply. Wade snaps his beak shut, and only then does he notice that he is standing on one of Tony’s legs. He pokes at the flesh with his webbed feet.

“Tony’s traded her voice to Amora and got legs.” Matt says, hating how liveless his voice sounds but not able to do anything about it, “Now he has three days to make the prince kiss him or he will lose his voice forever.”

Wade gasps loudly, putting his wings on either side of his face to exaggerate his shock. “Oh my my my! Human legs!”

Matt closes his eyes and massages his temple. _This cannot be happening._ He thinks desperately, _this is a dream, a nightmare, and I’ll wake up any moment now, and-_

“What do we do now?” Peter’s voice asks.

“What about we go back to find the witch? Like, if she would give you back your voice and your tail and you can just go back and…” Matt trails off as he sees the look on Tony’s face, and sighs. “And you’ll be miserable for the rest of your life.” He takes yet another deep breath.

“All right, we’ll have to find that prince for you.”

* * *

Wade feels the responsibility on his shoulders. ( _Do seagulls have shoulders?_ He thinks as he flexes his wings.) His three favourite mermen are venturing into the human world, and he is the only one with any idea what they’ll encounter. He can feel the stress building up. No, his boys need him now. He takes a deep breath. _First thing first._ He tells himself.

“Well, Tony,” he says cheerfully, “if you wanna be a human, the first thing you gotta do is dress like one.” He looks around for something to work with. There is a piece of fabric nearby, so he picks it up with his beak and drops it on Tony’s lap.

“What do I do with this?” Tony asks blankly.

“You...wrap it around the area right above your legs.” Wade tries to gesture with his wings. With the help of Matt and Peter, they fasten the fabric around Tony’s midsection to imitate the human’s clothes Wade has seen.

“You’re looking dashing, darling, you look sensational!” He tries whistle, but fails because of his beak and ends up with a weird hissing noise instead.

Just then, they hear someone yelling. “Lucky! Lucky!” A man is shouting from far away.

“Quick, hide!” Wade tells Peter and Matt, then turns to Tony, “stand up! Let’s get you found.”

The shouting man has gotten a lot closer as Tony struggles to balance himself on his new legs, and Wade urges Tony to sit on a large rock instead. Just then, a large, furry animal hops up onto Tony’s lap, panting all over him. Tony smiles fondly, stroking over its body experimentally.

“Lucky, come back! Clint is going to kill me-” The shouting man runs towards them. Tony and Wade raise their heads at the man, and freeze. It is Tony’s human prince. _What are the odds?_ Wade muses as the muscular prince stops right in front of Tony.

“I’m sorry,” He says to an awestruck Tony, “he is harmless, really, and-” he tilts his head, in a way that is not unlike the dog, “...you seem very familiar to me. Have we met?”

Tony nods frantically.

“We have met.” The prince’s eyes widen, “You’re the one, right? You saved my life!”

Tony nods again.

“What’s your name?”

Tony answers, or tries to, and is reminded again that he can no longer talk. He lowers his head sadly.

“You can’t speak? Oh,” the prince looks just as disappointed as Tony, “then you can’t be who I thought. I remember him talking non-stop all the way!”

Frantically, Tony gestures towards his throat and makes a talking motion with his hands to show that he used to be able to talk. Unfortunately, Prince Steven does not seem to understand that.

“W-what is it? Are you hurt?” Tony gestures more wildly. “You need help?” Tony gestures even more wildly, loses his balance, and falls off the rock towards the prince.

“Whoa! Careful.” Steven catches Tony easily. It seems that he only realises Tony’s half-dressed state then. “Gee, you must have really been through something. Don’t worry, I’ll help you. Do you want to come clean up at the castle?”

Tony considers for a barely noticeable half-second, then further sags into the prince’s hold, nodding into his chest. Prince Steven, thankfully, seem perfectly amenable to carrying him.

“No worries, we’ll have you feeling better in no time. You can call me Steve, by the way...” Wade hears the prince tell Tony. Figuring that Tony is in good hands, Wade flies back to his friends. However, Peter is the only one there.

“Oh? Where is Matty?” He asks.

“He followed Tony,” Peter shrugs. “He’s hiding in his...hair. Or somewhere. He says we might as well keep a close eye on Tony to make sure he’s alright. You go on, I’ll be...around.”

_Aw, no, bubble cheeks._ Wade thinks. “I know a lagoon near the edge of town. There are some water systems that leads into the city,” he says out loud, “I’ll lead you in. Come on!”

* * *

Matt regrets every part of this plan. _I should have quit my job long ago._ He thinks grudgingly as he gets tossed around in bubbly water, choking, _whatever this slippery stuff is, it’s not crab-friendly._

The slippery water means that it is very hard for Matt to find enough leverage to climb out of the laundry tub, especially when he is trying to be inconspicuous. After a few long minutes of climbing and slipping, he finally drags himself over the edge of the tub, onto a pile of soft materials.

“Grab the blankets to dry, would you, Martha?” A voice says from afar. Before Matt can react, he feels himself lifted up along with the fluffy pile around him, and placed on a flat, hard surface which is moving. He pokes his head through a spot of light through the blanket, and find himself being transferred towards two thick, rotating rods that are rolling the blankets between them and squeezing out the water.

“Ohhhhh no, oh no… No!” Matt flails around to try to escape, but he is too close to the squeezing rods to get away. He slips back between two layers of blankets, and prays that he won’t end up as crab parchment. Luckily, the blankets provides enough cushion to prevent his shell from being crushed. Matt clambers away before the blankets gets picked up for another round of squeezing, and scurries towards the door as quickly as his short crab legs can carry him.

After catching his breath from his tight escape from the laundry room, Matt sets off exploring the castle. The whole place is huge but sparsely populated, and Matt has no problem avoiding people on his way, until he comes across a warm, steamy room. Everything in the room is up on tall tables, so Matt climbs up a counter, and the first thing he sees is a fish head. On a chopping board. With a knife on top. Matt gasps. _Savages,_ King Howard’s voice says in his head. Matt shakes his head to clear it.

On the other side of the room, there is a human with a tall white hat, humming under his breath as he--Matt grimaces--chops up a fish and--Matt winces--picks out its bones one-by-one.

_This is not the place for me to be,_ Matt thinks as he slowly inches back towards the door, _I best be off- shit!_ He accidentally knocks over a stack of plates, making a loud crash and attracting the human’s attention. _No, no no no no no…_ Matt thinks as he scrambles away, but his short legs are no competition for that of the human’s, and he is picked up by the shell, his legs dangling beneath him.

“How on earth could I miss such a sweet little succulent crab~” The human sings. Matt wants to get sick. “Now I'll stuff you with bread It don't hurt 'cause you're dead…”

Matt twists wildly, desperation clouding his mind as he tries to wiggle free of the human’s hold, but he is too weak in this body. Just before he is going to be tossed in a pot of boiling water, Matt uses the last of his strength to twist around and bite the human on the hand.

“Aaaaargh!” The human screams, cradling his hand, and Matt takes the opportunity to clamber away. In his attempt to grab Matt, the cook burns his hand on the boiling pot. “Aaaaargh!” He shrieks again, letting out a long string of obscenities. 

“Come out, you little pipsqueak, and fight like a man!“ He yells. If Matt isn’t in mortal danger, he probably would have laughed. Now, however, he just uses the chance to run further away from the human, only stopping when he is safely away from the kitchen. _Phew._ Now all he has to do is to find Tony again. 

Overhearing that some maids are delivering dessert for “the prince and his guest”, Matt climbs up a trolley and lets himself he carried to where Tony is. _Humans,_ He grumbles from his hiding place under an overturned bowl. _Why would anyone like humans._

“--know, Steve, perhaps our guest may enjoy seeing some sights of the kingdom.” He hears someone say from inside a room, just as the maids open the door to push in the trolley. He slips off the trolley, and looks up towards the center of the room, where the prince, Tony, and a balding man having lunch.

“What do you say?” Prince Steven is asking Tony from across the table, “Would you like to join me on a tour of the kingdom tomorrow?” Tony nods enthusiastically.

_Things are going well, then._ Matt grumbles to himself as he climbs up to Tony’s lab and hides in his pockets, finally allowing himself to relax from the adrenaline rush of the earlier chase. _the things I do for you…_

* * *

That night, Wade flies up Tony’s window to ask him to come down to the small pond in the gardens. Earlier that day, Wade has led Peter the guppy through the maze of water system towards the castle, and they successfully arrived at the pond after a long day and crawling through narrow sewages and underground pipes, getting lost multiple times.

“I’m not doing that again.” Peter pouts as Tony scoops him up into a glass. “There must be another way in.”

“Maybe I can, like, put you in a jug and let them carry it around.” Tony ponders.

They meet up with an equally exhausted Matt in Tony’s room. (“What have you been doing, Matty? Didn’t you stay with Tony why are you so tired-” “Later, Wade. I don’t wanna move or talk.”) and together, they try to plot out a plan for tomorrow. All four mermen, ex-merman in Tony’s case, are squeezed together on the plush bed, enjoying the unfamiliar softness.

Wade keeps trying to teach Tony to flirt, while Peter and Matt try their best to not remind him that Tony has had plenty of courting experience, if only to watch (or in Matt’s case, listen to) Wade going through more and more absurd ‘seductive’ actions.

“Tomorrow, when he takes you for that ride, you gotta look your best. You gotta bat your eyes, like this. You gotta pucker up your lips, like this.” Wade says, demonstrating dramatically from where he is lying across Tony’s bed. 

Peter giggles helplessly at his boyfriend’s antics.

“C’mon, show us the infamous Tony charm!” Wade pouts, and Tony indulgently bats his eyelashes in Wade’s general direction. Peter stifles his snicker in his fist.

Wade pouts harder. “You are helpless, Tony. Completely helpless!” He whines, making everyone else burst out laughing. They all immediately cover their mouths and hold their breath for a moment, in case someone heard them and comes in. Thankfully, nobody seems to have noticed the sudden noise.

“Come on, guys.” Matt says in the end. “Let’s let Tony rest. He needs all his energy tomorrow.”

“To woo the prince!” Peter adds, still giggling, and rolls off the bed to avoid Tony’s swatting arms. “Erm, guys? Help me up?” He says weakly from where he is lying on the floor. Tony fetches a small glass jar from the nightstand, pours in some water, and kneels down next to Peter. Peter gets the message and shifts to a guppy, letting Tony scoop him onto the tray.

Tony hands Matt the tray, who shifts before carrying it with his front claws.

"I'll be back by tomorrow morning, Tony." He says. Tony nods with a shrug.

"See you soon, Tony!" Peter shouts from his jar. Peter’s voice is tiny, due to his small form, and it is further diminished through the glass jar. Tony beams at him, and Peter waves back with his fins.

"We'll leave you to your beauty sleep, Tony-man!" Wade hollers as he shifts and shakes his wings, then carefully picks up Matt (with Peter in Matt's claws) and flies out the window. Peter tries not to scream at the sensation of the water around him sloshing around in the jsr. _Matt and Wade won't let you fall, Peter,_ he reminds himself, trying his hardest to stick to the bottom of the jar.

When the wild swing finally stops, Peter finds themselves at a small lagoon. Matt dunks the jar into the water, letting Peter swim out and switch.

“Phew, that was one hell of a ride.” He says, stretching out his arms. “But still beats swimming in smelly water for a whole afternoon. Where are we?”

“I heard Prince Steve mentioning this place at lunch,” Matt says, “they will be coming here tomorrow.”

“A date!” Wade squeaks.

“Hopefully.” Matt nods. “Look around, this place is so pretty and romantic. It would be the best place for them to kiss!”

“Oh, I hope they’ll kiss!” Peter says.

“I hope so too,” Matt sighs, slumping down. Peter realizes that Matt must be under a lot of pressure and stress--he is neglecting his job, deliberately withholding information from the king. If they fail in their quest to make the prince fall in love with Tony, Tony would lose his voice and Matt would be punished for failing to stop Tony from meeting Amora; but if they succeed, he would have to explain to the King how he let the prince become a human.

“We’ll figure a way out of this,” he voices out loud. “Everything will be fine.”

“There he is, my positive, supportive, smart baby!” Wade coos. Peter feels himself blushing, but keeps his eyes on the obviously tense Matt.

“Come on, Matt, tomorrow’s gonna be a long day. Have some rest, yeah?” He nudges Matt, encouraging him to switch back, and wrapping his arms around him when he does. Matt lets out a small sigh against his shoulder.

“Group hug!” Wade cheers, flopping onto his boyfriends and joining to tangle of arms. Matt finally huffs out a small laugh. Peter considers this small victory, and ruffles his hair.

_Everything will be alright,_ Peter thinks, surrounded by his two amazing boyfriends, _we will fix this._

* * *

_They’re still not kissing!_ Matt thinks, distressed, as sunset nears. The two princes are rowing a boat leisurely in the lagoon, enjoying their date, while Matt feels like his insides are burning. He woke up at sunrise, lets Wade carry him back to Tony’s room, and has been shadowing Tony the whole day. Prince Steven and Tony seems to get along very well, and are becoming closer despite Tony’s inability to speak, yet there is no kiss. If Matt has any hair in his crab head, he probably would have tore all of it off by now.

“Yo, Matty-babe! Any kissing?” Wade lands near the bushes Matt is peeking out from.

“No, not yet.” Matt groans.

“Hmm. Well, they’d better get cracklin’!”

“Hey, guys, what is happening?” Peter the guppy peeps out from the water.

“Nothing. Nothing is happening.” Matt sighs.

“Only one day left, and that boy ain’t puckered up once.” Wade pets Matt’s back with his wing, and explains to Peter.

“Oh.” Peter says, discouraged.

Wade puffs out his chest feathers. “Okay… this calls for..”

Matt’s head jerks up. “Wade, what are you-”

“A little vocal romantic stimulation!”

“A little _what_?”

“No-uh. Watch this!” He flies up to a tree branch, then, to Matt and Peter’s horror, starts cawing loudly in a sound that Matt guesses is supposed to assemble the word “kiss”, although it sounds more like “caaaaaaas! Caaaaaas!” Matt facebalms and feels Peter hide underwater in embarrassment.

“Wow,” Matt hears Prince Steven say, “somebody should find that poor animal and put it out of its misery.”

Unable to suppress his laughter at this, Matt also ducks underwater to avoid being heard.

“We have no excuse for dating this man.” He shakes his head at Peter after they both calm down. “I’m surrounded by amateurs.” He rolls up his metaphorical sleeves, “you want something done, you’ve got to do it yourself.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just want to try something.” Matt says, crawling up the small boat behind Steve, then, deciding that Steve is sufficiently distracted by Tony, he carefully climbs up Steve’s back to whisper in his ear. 

“There you see him, sitting there across the way,” he says, in a voice soft enough that Steve probably can’t pinpoint where the sound is from, “he don't got a lot to say but there's something about him…”

He ducks back and hangs off the back of Steve’s cardigan when the prince swivels around to find the source of the soft whisper, and climbs back up when the prince finds nothing and turns back with a confused tilt of the head.

“And you don't know why but you're dying to try, you wanna kiss the boy…” Matt continues carefully.

“D-Did you hear something?” The prince asks Tony.

Tony, from where he has been making eye contact with Matt for a whole minute, adapts his best “what? Me?” wide-eyed innocent expression and shakes his head.

“Hmm.” Steve shakes his head to clear it, then goes back to rowing and gazing into Tony’s eyes lovingly. 

Matt sighs. He can’t give up now. “Yes, you want him. Look at him, you know you do…” He starts again, “Possible he wants you too, there is one way to ask him…”

He feels the prince leaning forward. _Yes!_ “It don’t take a word, not a single word, go on and kiss the boy!”

Catching up to what Matt is doing, Wade flies up and shakes the tree branches above the couple, making peaceful rasping noises and creating flickering shadows in the fading sunlight. Down in the water, Peter has led a crowd of frogs and fishes to the surface, all gently humming and creating tranquil splashing noises. Matt can never be prouder of his lovers.

_Come on,_ he thinks, _we’ve even arranged the most romantic atmosphere for you!_

“My, oh my, look like the boy too shy, ain't it a shame, he gonna miss the boy!” He hisses near Steve’s ear.

“You know,” Steve starts hesitantly, “I feel really bad not knowing your name. Maybe I can guess. Is it, uh, Robert?” Tony shakes his head with a pout. “OK, what about… John?” A harder pout. “Hank? Marvin?”

“Tony!” Unable to stop himself, Matt whispers.

“...Tony?” Steve tries. Tony visibly lights up, beams, and nods vigorously. “That’s a nice name. Tony.”

_This is a perfect chance!_ Matt decides. “Boy, you better do it soon, no time will be better! He don’t say a word, and he won’t say a word until you kiss the boy!”

Steve rolls his shoulder, seemingly determined. “Go on and kiss the boy~” Matt singsongs. Steve leans forward as Tony does, both with anticipation on their faces--

And the boat tips harshly to the side, tipping both humans into the water. Losing his grip on Steve’s shoulder, Matt is thrown over to the other side of the lagoon. Spluttering, he climbs up a water lily to see a soaked Steve helping an equally soaked Tony up.

“Hang on, Tony, I’ve got ya.” He says fondly.

Matt watches them leave as Peter and Wade come up behind him.

“We were almost there!” Peter humphs.

“Aw, but did you see the way he looks at Tony? He’s already in love, I’m telling you.” Wade strokes Peter’s back with a counseling wing.

Matt keeps quiet and silently prays that this at least means that the prince would kiss Tony before tomorrow.

* * *

Wade is circling the castle after dropping Matt off at a still-sleeping Tony’s room when he overhears Prince Steven talking. He flies towards Steve’s window to eavesdrop.

“-so I am going to marry him. Soon.” He is saying.

“Really, a bit of warning would be nice, Steve, I haven’t even met the guy, and I’m already organising a wedding for you two!” Another man says, but he doesn’t really sound angry.

“I’ve always said I would marry my savior once I meet him, Clint. And now that I have, it only makes sense that I do.”

“I know, I’m happy for you. We all are. Right, let’s get you all pretty for your lover, your highness.” Clint teases, and the two fall into silence.

_Stevie’s marrying Tonyyyyyyy!_ Wade almost falls in his haste to fly up to Tony’s room.

“Tony! Tones! Tonyyyyyyy!” He flops onto Tony’s head unceremoniously, practically screeching. Groaning, Tony attempts to bury his head under his pillow. “Tony! Wake up, wake up! I just heard the news!”

“What news?” Comes Matt’s voice from the floor, and Wade realizes that he must have shocked Matt into falling off the bed. But that must wait, he is here with an important message.

“The prince is gettin’ himself hitched this afternoon! Congratulations, guys, we did it!”

With a gasp, Tony spring out the bed, pulling a rope quickly. Matt scrambles to climb into his pocket, as Tony runs out of his room and sprints down the hallway. Wade follows at the exterior of the castle, watching excitedly through the windows. At last, they reach the indoor balcony which overlooks the main hall. There, near the foyer, stands Prince Steven, dressed sharply in a white suit--

With another man on his arm. Wade’s head turns sharply towards where Tony is leaning on the rails of the balcony, just in time to see his eyes dimming from joy to excruciating pain.

“...that I was mistaken.” The prince’s advisor, Phil, is saying when the rush of blood to Wade’s ear finally quiets down, “This mystery savior of yours does, in fact exist.”

_Mystery savior? Isn’t that supposed to be Tony?”_

Down in the hall, Prince Steven only nods. “We wish to be married as soon as possible.” He says, a bit dully, with a blank expression. _Hmm, weird._

“Oh, yes, of course, but these things do take time, you know, Steve.” Phil says.

“This afternoon, Phil. The wedding ship departs at sunset.”

Phil falters. “Oh. Are you sure-” He stops when he sees the twin glare from Steve and the man, “Very well, Steve. Uh, as you wish.”

The stranger leans up towards Steve with a disgustingly greasy expression, and Wade tears his eyes away with a growl. 

When he looks at the balcony again, Tony is already gone. Sighing, Wade takes off, deciding to let Tony recover from his heartbreak in peace.

_Why, though, does Steve say the man is his savior?_

He spends the few hours before the wedding drifting around mindlessly, unable to solve the mystery that is bothering him. _He said it was Tony’s voice that he remembers! There isn’t anybody else that can talk like him!_ Tony’s chattering fills his mind, and his heart clenches--he is not as close to the prince as his boys, but they are still friends. He can’t imagine never hearing Tony talk ever again. Determined to solve the problem, Wade sets off towards the imposter’s room on the wedding ship. _I will find out how you seduced the prince, you fake!_

* * *

Hovering in the water beneath the dock, Peter looks helplessly at Tony’s motionless shape, and sighs again. He was so hopeful yesterday, believing that they had successfully brought Prince Steven and Tony together, and he went to sleep with a smile last night. Now, however, their hopes are crushed right before their eyes.

He turns to look at Matt. Even though his emotions are harder to read as a crab, he can still sense Matt’s restlessness, grief, and anger. Everyone is confused by how the prince could forget about Tony and get married so soon even though they can all see that he was in love with Tony yesterday, but this weighs especially heavy on Matt, who is used to be the problem-solver. 

“I should’ve done more, shouldn’t have just left them to figure things out by themselves yesterday.” He’d ground out through clenched teeth before resolutely staring out the sea, no doubt still trying to think of a way to help. Judging by the way he had sat there, still as a statue, for the last couple of hours, he came up empty.

Peter rubs at his eyes as both the wedding ship and the sun moves further and further towards the west. His best friend deserves better than this. He would rather Tony break down crying--he is not crying, not shouting, not expressing anything--he just looks empty and limp now, like a marionette with the strings cut. He just wishes he could take away some of Tony’s pain.

A loud shout jerks him out of his depressing thoughts.

“Tony! Tony! TONYYYYYY!” He hears, seeing a black spot in the sky gets bigger as it comes closer and closer.

“Tony!” Wade the seagull lands with a thud right next to Tony, tugging at his arm to get him to listen. Tony barely tilts his head. “Tony!” Wade pants, “I was flying, I was- Of course I was flying- and I saw- the- the watch, I mean the witch, and she was- was talking! Chattering, blabbling, obnoxiously to a mirror, and she is the man!”

Tony raises an eyebrow. Matt and Peter, familiar with Wade’s way of speech, just wait patiently for him to gather his thoughts.

Wade tries again. “The prince is marrying Amora the enchantress in disguise!”

Matt narrows his eyes. “Are you sure about this?”

“Have I ever been wrong?” Wade grabs Matt with his wings. “I mean, when it’s important? The man Stevie’s marrying has the reflection of Amora! He is carrying a magic seashell on his necklace that hypnotized the prince!”

Tony’s eyes widen and he gestures to his neck and mimes talking into his palm.

“That shell carries you voice?” Matt is the first one to catch on. Tony nods vigorously.

“What do we do?” Peter worries his bottom lip with his teeth. This is a lot to process, but at the same time it makes perfect sense. That’s how Prince Steve got deceived. That’s why he changed his heart so suddenly. The evil enchantress must be behind all this!

As Matt and Peter get distracted by the new development, and Wade by whatever his mind is on, Tony stands up with a determined look, and jumps into the water.

“Whoa!” Peter dives down to grab Tony. “You can’t swim like this, gosh.”

“OK, here’s the plan. Wade, please, you have to find a way to stall the wedding.” Matt, ever the clear-minded one, orders.

“Aye aye, Captain!”

Matt cuts free some empty buckets from the dock, and pushes them into the water. 

“Peter, you’ll have to help Tony to the ship as fast as possible.” Peter and Tony nod as Matt jumps down from the dock, “I’ll have to go to King Howard. He must know about this.”

Matt disappears into the sea, and Peter helps Tony hold on to an empty bucket, pulling him towards the ship with all the strength he has. They HAVE to get there in time.

* * *

Wade is not someone people depend on the get things done. However, if you’re talking about wrecking things, well, that’s just Wade’s specialty. “A force of destruction, that boy is,” people used to say, shaking their head at Wade. He is just the right person for stalling a wedding. He glides through the waterfront, screeching on the top of his lungs, “Come on out! Come on out! We have a wedding to wreck!”

One by one, birds and marine animals start poking their heads out in interest.

“Emergency!” He screams. “Amora the evil bitch stole Prince Anthony’s man and is tricking him into marrying her! We must stop the wedding, but don’t hurt the prince! He is the large blond one, by the way. Do anything you want to the evil enchantress disguised into a man!”

With a war cry, he charges towards the wedding ship with his hurriedly assembled team. 

As he nears the deck, he can see the wedding has already begun.

“And would you, Mr Justin-” The officiator is saying. _Oh, we can’t have that,_ Wade thinks darkly. Glancing behind him to make sure he has a whole flock of albatross hot on his tail, Wade dives sharply towards the witch-turned-man, unfortunately missing him as he ducks quickly. Wade u-turns and dive again, this time learning his lesson and aiming lower--

Amora stands up and the birds pass between his legs instead, overthrowing his balance and making him trip over his own feet. Before he can stand up properly, a group of pelicans fly over and drops their mouthfuls of water onto Amora’s head. He screams loudly as a lobster climbs up his back and clamps his nose hard, looking like it is having the time of its life. 

Gratefully letting his friends handle the situation and sure that the wedding is not continuing anytime soon, Wade looks out the deck to see where Tony and Peter are. He finds them nearer than he expected, Peter pulling the bucket by a rope, Tony hanging on tight and kicking his human legs to help speed along. Both look exhausted out of their minds, but still have a determined look on their faces.

Wade feels a wave of pride and fondness towards his friends. _So strong,my baby boy and my prince._

“You’ve done so well!” He grabs onto the back of Tony drenched shirt to help as he climbs up the side of the ship, sparing a second to blow a kiss to Peter. “Proud of you, babe!”

When they return to the deck, all the guests have apparently hid away, leaving only Steve, Phil, and Amora on the deck. Most of Wade’s army have left as well, and he can see why--Steve’s furry friend has joined in the fun. The dog sinks its teeth into Amora’s ass, making him screech in agony, and Wade grabs the chance to pull at his necklace with his beak, snapping it and making the magic seashell smash to bits on the floor.

A glowing golden tendril rises up from where the shell is broken, and slithers towards Tony, who is leaning on the side of the ship. It surrounds him and makes him glow as well, and when the brightness fades--

“Whoa! Ha, I can talk again, thank heavens.” He says, with a look of pure joy on his face.

“Tony?” Steve has lost the blank look on his face, and is instead staring at Tony with wonder and confusion. 

“Steve!” Tony beams and runs towards Steve, throwing his arms around his neck.

“You can talk?”

“Yes yes yes yes you have no idea-”

“Steve, stay away from her!” Amora, who still looks like a man but now talks in her own voice, sneers. Both Steve and Tony ignore her.

“You’re the one.” Steve says, with a grin so wide you can count his teeth, and Tony answers with a matching grin.

“Oh, Steve.” He strokes the hair at the nape of Steve’s neck, “I- I wanted to tell you, so much.”

The two lean closer and closer to each other, their lips almost touching--

Tony suddenly freezes up, and he would have dropped to the floor if it wasn’t for Steve’s strong hold on his waist. Steve gasps.

Tony has turned back to a merman, his bright red tail ripping his trousers. Steve looks lost for words, blinking rapidly at Tony’s tail.

Behind them, Amora howls with laughter. “You’re too late!” She conjures a bright green whip that wraps around Tony, dragging him towards the edge of the ship and knocking Steve away with a flick. Then, she shifts back to her original form with octopus’ tentacles as legs, and jumps back into the ocean, pulling Tony’s bound form along.

“So long, loverboy!” She taunts, echo of her laughter lingering long after she is gone.

Steve strips his shirt off and grabs a spear. Phil holds him back by grabbing onto his arm.

“Steve, what are you doing?”

Steve pushes Phil’s arm off with an apologetic wince. “Phil, I almost lost him once. I can’t lose him again.” He says, and promptly jumps off the ship.

“Shit.” Wade swears, following him down and shifting mid-air.

* * *

Matt follows dutifully behind King Howard as they rush towards the wedding ship, just in time to see a large shape splash into the water. It is Amora, with a magic-bound Tony. Matt’s heart sinks.

Not only is Amora not intimidated at all by the King presence, she actually looks glad to see him.

“Why, King Howard.” She purrs, “How are you?”

King Howard jabs his trident at her. “Let. Him. Go.”

Amora laughs as if it is a big, funny joke. “No can do, daddy Howard. We made a deal.” She unfolds a glowing piece of parchment and waves it in front of the King’s face. “He’s mine now.”

Snarling, King Howard shoots a burst of energy towards Amora and the parchment, only for her to hide behind the contract, which remains completely unscathed.

“See?” She says smugly, “The contract’s legal, binding, and completely unbreakable… even for you. Now, of course, I always was a girl with an eye for a bargain.” She slithers around King Howard like an eel, “the son of the great sea king is a very precious commodity. But I might be willing to make an exchange for someone even better.”

Matt and Tony’s eyes widen in comprehension, while King Howard considers it. No, wait, that is not his ‘considering’ face. The sea King is looking intently at his son, and his eyes are… Matt squints and try to have a better read at the King’s expression. Years of working under the monarch has taught him that gauging King Howard body language is just as important as understanding his words. _Oh._ Matt realizes, _That’s the ‘you have a job to do, do it well’ face._ He glances at Tony and sees that Tony gets the meaning as well, as his face is now set in grim determination.

“Now,” Amora says, waving around another piece of glowing parchment, “do we have a deal?”

King Howard simply raises his trident and signs the contract. Immediately, Tony is released from his binds, and the king shrinks and shrivels, turning into a faced polyp, just like the ones they had seen in Amora’s cave. Matt sucks in a sharp breath. This is happening, and it’s real. The King is gone. They will have to defeat the evil enchantress to bring him, and peace, back.

“Oh no, dad!” Tony rushes forward. To Amora, it may look like grief; for Matt, well, it is not the best performance of his friend’s acting career.

Smug with the success of her plot, Amora picks up King Howard’s crown and trident. “At last… it’s mine. Aw!” A spear appears out of nowhere and grazes her arm, making her hiss in pain. She whips around to see Prince Steve swimming not far away.

“After him!” She screams at her eels.

“Steve, look out!” Tony cries as the eels drag a struggling Steven further into the water.

_He can’t breathe._ Matt realizes, and rushes towards him, just as Wade appears behind Steve, pulling out a wicked-looking knife. He stabs an eel on the face, as Matt uses his claws to clamp the other one’s tail, making it loosen its grip of Steve. Peter, who has been (thankfully) hiding who-knows-where, comes and drags Steve up towards the surface once he is freed from the eels.

“Oh no, you don’t.” Matt hears Amora say. He turns to see her pointing the trident towards Steve. Before Matt can warn the others, Tony body slams onto Amora, knocking the trident’s aim off, making it hit the eels instead. They both disintegrate in a blink of an eye. Matt shudders when he imagines that happening to Peter and Prince Steve.

Seeing her minions perish, Amora lets out a blood-curdling shriek. “You pitiful, insignificant fools!” She cries as she raises the trident again. Thick ,dark smog begins circling her tentacles, spreading out rapidly and blocking everyone’s sight.

“Steve, look out!” Matt hears Tony shout, but it seems nobody is in any state to look out for anything. 

Not used to not being able to see in his crab state, Matt switches back to his blind merman self. In this body, his other senses are better adjusted to compensate for his lack of sight.

“Guys?” He shouts, as loud as he could. Tilting his head, he faces the general direction of the muffled replies, and sets out to look for his companions by their sound.

“Matt? Matt!” He hears Peter’s panicked voice.

“I’m coming to you, don’t move, and keep talking.” He tries his best to reassure his younger boyfriend. He can hear the storm above getting louder and louder, and Amora’s laughter is now deep and deafening, like it is amplified by multiple times. The water around him is swirling strongly, making navigation even more difficult as he keeps getting spun around by the currents, and Peter’s voice keeps getting dispersed by the flow of water. Gritting his teeth, Matt resists the water currents and carefully makes his way through pieces of large debris by swatting a hand in front of him, until he reaches where Peter is.

“OK, Peter, I’m going to touch you, don’t flinch.” He reaches out a hand towards where Peter’s voice comes from, managing to tab Peter’s arm, then reaches down to gently grip his wrist.

“Matt?”

“Yeah.”

“Thank god. Have you got Wade?”

“No, but I heard him nearby. Let’s find him. Wade!” He shouts the name loudly, hearing his own name echo back from not far away.

“Come on,” Matt tugs on Peter’s arm and swims towards Wade’s direction, holding an arm ahead to avoid hitting anything. Soon, he feels his hand grabbed by familiar fingers.

“Matty!” Wade pulls Matt, and indirectly Peter, close and holds them tightly.

“Can you two see anything?” Matt asks.

“I can see some shapes?” Peter tries. “But nothing useful. Let’s go to the surface.”

“OK, yeah.”

* * *

Peter opens his eyes immediately as soon as they break the surface or water, and blinks to clear his sight. Then he blinks again, rapidly, not believing what he sees.

The three mermen have drifted further away from the wedding ship during the chaos. There, at the center of the hurricane where the ship was, is Amora, who is now about a hundred times bigger in size and waving an equally enlarged trident around.

“Jumpin’ jellyfish!” He hears Wade exclaim beside him.

“How could we defeat that _thing_?” Peter asks helplessly. The king was the only one with the power to counter the evil enchantress, and he is gone, and now Amora has his powers too.

“-waves obey my every whim!” The giant witch is yelling triumphantly. Peter cannot see the flash of red that represents Tony anywhere, and the only thing in sight except Amora is the broken wedding ship--

The wedding ship, which is creeping forwards right behind the enchantress, getting closer without her knowledge as she is too busy gloating.

“The ship.” Matt, who has shifted again to see what’s happening, says from where he is perched on Wade’s shoulder.

“You think that’s Tony? Or Stevie?” Wade sucks in a breath and holds it.

“Don’t turn around, don’t turn around, don’t turn around…” Peter chants, wishing whoever steering that boat the best of luck. They are everyone’s best and only chance now.

His prayer doesn’t seem to be heard, though, as Amora turns around, just before the ship reaches her. Even Matt lost his cool and gasps loudly.

“The sea and all its spoils bow to my power!” The witch bellows lifting the trident high above her head and bringing it down towards the ship. Unfortunately for Amora, and blessedly for everyone else, her humongous size has a disadvantage--it moves sluggishly and heavily, like it takes too long for the limps to respond to her brain. Thanks to the buffer, before the enchantress hits the ship, the ship hit the enchantress.

And it isn’t just a simple bump. The bowsprit at the front of the ship is splintered from the witch’s previous attack, sharpened to an almost spear-like shape. When the ship is driven head-first towards the witch, the jagged bowsprit stabs into her stomach, penetrating all the way through her back.

“Oh my-” Even Wade is made speechless as Amora lets out a thunderous wail, falling backwards at the force of the hit.

Peter shield his eyes with his hands as the lightning above the enchantress intensifies, only to realize with a start that it is Amora herself glowing. With each flash, he can see her skeleton through her convulsing body, which is honestly quite a disturbing sight.

She finally hits the surface of water in slow-motion, right in the center of the water spiral she created herself, and disappears down the whirling waves.

Almost immediately, the storms halts, leaving the sea completely quiet, broken pieces of debris floating on the surface of water.

Peter almost has whiplash from the sudden end to the mayhem.

Peter startles at a hand on his shoulder, then relaxes and allows himself to be tugged into a group hug, his head pillowed on Wade’s chest and his waist held tightly in Matt’s arms.

“That was too much excitement for dear old me.” Wade whispers.

“I’m retiring,” is Matt’s muffled reply.

Finally rousing from the shock and adrenaline rush, Peter huffs out a laugh against Wade’s shoulder. 

“Wait.” He suddenly remembers, almost headbutting Wade when he jerks his head up.

“What is it, baby?” Wade asks softly, rubbing between Peter’s shoulder blades.

“Where’s Tony?”

* * *

They find Tony on the edge of the ocean, sitting on a large rock, staring wistfully at the land, where Prince Steve is lying, unconscious. Wade feels a sense of déjà vu. The only difference in the picture is King Howard, just a few steps behind Tony. 

“You’re here, good. You will bear witness to what is going to happen, if anyone asks about it in the future.” He says without looking back when the trio approaches.

“Bear witness to what, your- your majesty?” Peter asks.

“You will see,” is the king’s answer.

Wade rolls his eyes. He really doesn’t like Howard. Sure, he is a fair king, but as a father? An employer? An actual person you interact with instead of just watch from afar? Ugh, he’s just nasty.

“Anthony.” King Howard calls.

“Hmm?” Tony doesn’t look back when he answers. Wade’s heart clenches. He can’t even begin to imagine how Tony must feel right now. He barely gets to spend anytime with his love before leaving, and now he probably will have no chance to return after getting dragged back to the sea kicking and screaming.

“Anthony. We have to talk.”

Sighing, Tony spares one last heated glance at Steve, schools his expression into a blank one, and turns to face his father.

“I have a deal to make with you.” The king starts. Tony just raises an eyebrow. King Howard does not make deals; he tells you what he wants you to do, and you either oblige or face punishment. “I will make you human if you fulfil certain conditions.”

Now THAT gets a reaction out of Tony. A bright, hopeful look bursts out on his face before he manages to settle back to nonchalance.

“What conditions.” He asks with a low voice.

“You will continue to build. You will get your hands on a workshop, and continue to invent for our kingdom. You will keep in touch with the kingdom through my assigned messengers, but you will not return.”

Tony ponders it for a moment. “Just these? What’s the catch?”

“No catch. This is beneficial to me, you, and the kingdom. I have plenty of sons to follow my footsteps--I have no need for a rebellious one that never obeys me, let alone one that fraternizes with a villain to create such great trouble for the whole kingdom.”

Wade feels Matt tense next to him, as Peter lets out a furious squeak. He is pretty outraged himself, offended on their friend’s behalf. He is sure all three of them would have spoken out, if it wasn’t for the fact that they want the king to turn Tony back to a human.

Tony, to his credit, barely flinches. “Deal.” He says lightly, spreading his arms. King Howard doesn’t even bother with a response, simply pointing his trident towards his son, enveloping him in swirling golden light. He turns around and leaves before the transformation finishes, not even looking back at his youngest son, whom he would likely not see again for a long time, if not forever. Wade suppresses the urge to flip him the finger behind his back.

The light around Tony fades, and he settles back down on the rock, looking down at his legs in wonder, his eyes sparkling. For once, Tony seems speechless.

Peter swims forward to his best friend. “I’ll miss you, Tony.” He says, close to crying himself.

“Aw, no, kid. This is not goodbye, I swear.” Tony carefully slides down the rock, wrapping Peter in a firm hug. “What are you doing over there? Come on, join the hug.” Tony waves at Wade and Matt over Peter’s shoulder. Wade wraps an arm around Matt’s waist to guide him, and together they make their way to join the hug.

“Awww, Tony-man, I’ll miss you too!” Wade wails with an exaggerated sniff, making Peter laugh wetly. 

“I’ll make sure you guys are always welcome at the castle,” Tony promises, “and I’ll see you at the wedding, yeah? MY wedding, this time.”

“You’d better.” Comes Peter’s muffled voice from where his face is squished against Tony’s shoulder.

Wade closes his eyes and smiles. Literally nothing went according to plan, but they are all here together, safe and sound, ( _though Stevie's better wake up soon, really, is he OK_ ) and he wouldn’t ask for anything else.


	2. Epilogue

Matt smiles contently from his place next to the huge wedding cake. Tony and Steve’s wedding is coming to an end, and the sailors on the wedding ship are busy re-arranging the chairs to clear out an area for dancing. From his position, Matt can see Tony and Prince Steve huddled together near the front of the ship, whispering in each other’s ears. 

_It’s nice to see Tony happy,_ Matt thinks. Come to think of it, Tony is not only unhappy under the sea because of his longing for the human world, or his strained relationship with his father. He has never seen Tony so in love, so happy with just being with another person. Sure, he has Peter as a best friend, and Peter is the best best friend anyone could have in Matt’s opinion, but Peter is more like a younger brother to Tony. Tony needed someone to ground him, to be his rock in the world. Tony needed someone like Steve. 

He hears the flapping of wings behind him, and hastily wipes away his tears with his front claws before Wade lands next to him. Wade, bless him, is actually much more sensitive than people give him credit for. He doesn’t comment on Matt’s oddly thick voice when he says “hey”, and just gently strokes Matt’s back with a wing.

“Peter finished saying goodbye with Tony,” he tells Matt softly, “we’re thinking of exploring the new drain Tony mentioned?”

Before the wedding, when the trio gave Tony a surprise visit to give him a prep talk to calm his pre-wedding nerves, he mentioned that he had built a secret water passage that goes straight into the castle from the ocean.

“So you don’t have to come in a jar every time you visit.” Tony said with fake flippancy. “I expect to see you three often! Don’t use transport as an excuse to not come.”

Matt had to slap his claw over Wade’s beak to stop him from cooing out loud. He was, however, not able to stop Peter from bursting out in tears. He probably would have tackled Tony in a hug if he hadn’t been a guppy stuck in a glass jar at the time.

“I’ll be there is a sec.” Matt whispers back. Wade gentle nuzzles him with his beak and flies away.

Busy taking deep breaths to get himself back together, Matt is almost too late to notice to chef coming towards him. It is that savage human he had met in the castle’s kitchen, stomping in his direction, a large knife in his hand and a murderous glare in his eyes. _Uh-oh._

Matt scrambles away from the table just as the chef brings the knife down, chopping the wedding cake in half. _At least it’s not completely ruined,_ Matt thinks distractedly as the chef chases him down the deck, the guests and the newlyweds looking on in amusement. Soon, Matt is chased to a dead end at the edge of the ship. Of course, there would be no problem for him to simply jump overboard, but this particular human has given him so much misery he just _have_ to do something.

“Don’t be deceived by his calm, brooding exterior.” Wade had said multiple times in the past, “this blind guy’s got the devil in him.”

Matt smirks as he spots what he is looking for, raises a sharp claw, and searches out Tony and Steve in the crowd to silently ask for permission. Tony whispers in Steve’s ear to explain, and the human prince raises an amused eyebrow and nods subtly. Just as the chef is about to reach Matt, he calmly reaches up and clips the rope nearest to him. A large wooden beam drops from above, swinging by the cut rope, and hits the chef precisely in the face.

The chef sways, still tries to get to Matt but barely making a step on his wobbly feet, and drops like a rock.

“Jasper, what the hell, you got beaten by a crab!” Matt hears someone laugh as he victorious jumps over the railing into the ocean below.

Wade and Peter is waiting for him with wide grins on their faces as he lands.

“Thank you, thank you.” Matt bows dramatically.

“For official purposes, I have no idea what happened and I of course don’t condone any type of violence against my staff.” Steve leans against the railing and whisper-shouts, Tony leading on his shoulder with a smile. The trio of mermen laugh as Steve winks, and waves goodbye to the happy couple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end! Thank you so so so much for reading:)

**Author's Note:**

> The next chapter will just be a short epilogue:) I'll post it once I finish writing it!


End file.
